In the midst of ceaseless change and innovation since the company privatization, KT has been restructured as a super first-rate enterprise of world-class level in terms of management resources, business performance and quality. For the purpose of continuous improvement in system management and business performance since 2000, the company has been employing the management quality model Malcolm Baldridge of the U.S. Not least, president & CEO Lee Yong-kyung who took office as the first CEO in KT when it was completely privatized in 2002, is launching a great innovation in KT management by introducing Six Sigma for the first time among communication service providers. At the same time, he devoted the company efforts to converting KT to a privately owned company via management innovation along with his inauguration.

president & CEO Lee Yong-kyung

KT's Six-Sigma management innovation, which was driven by CEO Lee from Feb. 2003 onwards, has helped the company gain over 190 billion won in terms of financial performance. Besides financial performance, as customer discontent in cardinal services such as high-speed Internet, exclusive circuits, and telephone has decreased by 26% in comparison from January 2004 to January 2005, the improvement in service quality is quite plain. Thanks to such management innovation efforts, KT was able to grow to become one of the global 500 corporations recognized by Fortune magazine since 2001 and as one of the largest Forbes 2,000 corporations, the CEO explains. At the same time, the CEO adds that KT was able to make a successful conversion from a wire telephone business to an Internet/Data business, which has never been done before by any other communication business provider. This has been achieved by becoming the best high-speed Internet business provider in the world. The company has secured 6 million subscribers as of September 20, 2004 four years since making inroads into the high-speed Internet business in 2000. To learn about the excellence of the company management control system, KT Group future strategy 2010, and the priority for KT business direction this year, The Korea IT Times spoke with KT president & CEO Lee Yong-kyung. Q: To begin with, please touch upon KT changes and innovation that led it to becoming a world-class company. A: The background to KT recent remarkable business performance is that our company has steadily embodied strategy and performance-oriented management by introducing BSC (Balanced Score Card) for the first time domestically. KT, which shows such superior corporate competitiveness, is establishing its key program entitled he future strategy 2010 as a blueprint to usher the Republic of Korea into era of unlimited information communication with a sense of responsibility that KT development is not about development as a corporation, but rather as a project to build national competitiveness. KT feels that the society in the future would be an Ubiquitous world in which a person gives and takes information, escaping from the restrictions of time and space via u-Sensing, u-Computing, and u-Networking. Accordingly, KT is striving to become a leading corporation of the Ubiquitous era in which voice and data, wire and wireless, communication and broadcasting, and fusion of communication and finance are attained, so providing the basis for the 5 new officially selected growth businesses, namely, the ext-generation mobile communication, ome networking, edia, T service, and igital content. Q: What was KT financial performance last year A: First off, KT turnover last year increased 2.4% to 11.8508 trillion won in comparison with the previous year 11.5745 trillion won. In terms of net profit and trading profit also, the results were 1.2555 won and 2.1271 trillion won, respectively, up 51.3% and 71.1% respectively. This is the result of us continuously expanding our high-speed Internet and PCS resale subscriber base. At a general meeting of stockholders held March 11, KT revealed its plan to prepare a business foundation on which we will place emphasis on enlarging high-speed Internet as well as PCS resale subscribers, creating a stable cash flow and nurturing WiBro as a future core growth business. Q: What happened on KT business side as well as management side last year A: In terms of business, KT, which entered the communication market with a mainstay communication network and as a superior telephone business provider, has grown into a worldwide information communication enterprise that put wire/wireless high-speed Internet and mobile communication, satellite communication and data communication services together via ceaseless efforts. On the management side, KT has carried out continuous R&D to boost corporate competitiveness by implementing the Six Sigma quality management program, plus customer satisfaction management projects, and going publicly owned in the interests of rational and efficient management in 2004, and has carried out a number of scheduled overseas business projects faithfully. In regard to stock price, KT stock price will rise and fall according to how successful new businesses are launched, and according to shareholder confidence about earnings and dividends. However, as stocks of communication industry types of business shows relatively stable movement in the midst of market decline caused by the recent depreciation of the won/dollar exchange rate, KT stock price is likely to keep fairly steady. Q: In that respect, would you comment on KT business priorities as well as its new plans for new projects in 2005 A: As a period to consolidate our business base, KT will place great emphasis on devising new growth engines for the purpose of continuous growth this year. Not least, our company aims to claim a major stake in the wire/wireless integration market by doing everything in our power for the successful launch of our WiBro business. In addition, for the sake of expanding our core business in such areas as home networking and IT service, we will invest intensively in various BM development and R&D projects. In the fields of new business, KT will concentrate our efforts on preventing leakage of existing business turnover through diverse added-service development and capacity strengthening. Our future strategy businesses include IT service, media, next-generation mobile communication, home networking and digital content. Q: In that regard, the KT Group uture Strategy 2010 also seems to be attracting lots of attention from associated businesses. Would you explain your Future Strategy 2010 program and the KT Group vision A: KT Group has selected a way to promote our 5 new growth projects for the future and that will pioneer our future strategy 2010. In consideration of finance, logistics, and medical services in which convergence with communication is forecast to be brisk, the KT Group wanted to map out our future business fields and as a result, next-generation mobile communication (including telematics), Home Networking, Media, IT service as well as Digital Content have been selected as our 5 key businesses on which our Group will have to concentrate our efforts.

president & CEO Lee Yong-kyung

Q: What is the background to KT being chosen as one of the first WiBro business providers at the beginning of this year A: As KT, which has existing infrastructure and experience in offering various services, was selected in the first round of selection, our company has become a leader in the new wire/wireless integration market. Needs on the part of the user, communication business providers as well as equipment manufacturers, and the government strategy led to the introduction of the WiBro as the first project of the IT839 strategy and in the KT future strategy 2010 also, WiBro was designated as a new growth engine. Q: How do you assess the changes in KT corporate control structure since its privatization A: The special features of KT corporate control structures are that it now has a board of directors management system, has embedded responsible management with a special executive as the central figure, and is attaching importance to boosting shareholder value as well as minority shareholder rights. The outside assessment of KT corporate control structure is that it is excellent as a whole raft of institutions at home and abroad rate it highly. On this point, it was rated as being the best IR corporation in Asia in June 2003.